NOETHERK PASSAGE TO INDIA. 11 



mse found in a whale by the people of another Green- 

 landman of Hull : this stone-lance is now deposited 

 in the interesting collection of natural rarities belong- 

 ing to Mr Hornsea of Scarbrough *. To these 

 facts we might add many of a similar kind, together 

 with others of whales struck in Davis' Straits ha- 

 ving been killed near Spitzbergen, and vice versa ; 

 but the above will be sufficient for affording a strong 

 confirmation of the opinion, that a sea communi- 

 cation between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by 

 the North, does exist. For, with regard to the 

 stone-lances and bone-harpoons found in the bodies 

 of whales, it may be remarked, that as the Esqui- 

 maux of Davis' Straits and Hudson's Bay, have 

 now, from their long intercourse with Europeans, 

 become well supplied with weapons calculated for 

 the capture of the whale made of iron, these in- 

 struments of stone and bone, so much inferior, 

 must have been used by some other persons wlio 

 have not yet had intercourse with the civilized 

 world ; but as they are precisely the kind of wea- 

 pons which were in common use among the Esqui- 

 maux a century ago, it is probable that the in- 

 struments alluded to were struck by some tribe of 

 the same nation, inhabiting the shores of the fro- 

 zen ocean, on the northern face of the American 

 Continent, yet unexplored. If so, these facts go 



* Plate II. fig. 1. is a representation of this instrument. 



